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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27251242">Book One: The Grand Hunt</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BensonTheWriter227/pseuds/BensonTheWriter227'>BensonTheWriter227</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Across the Sea of War [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tomb Raider (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - 19th Century, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Elemental Magic, Factions, Gen, MacGuffins, Treasure Hunting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:20:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,202</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27251242</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BensonTheWriter227/pseuds/BensonTheWriter227</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two simple poor thieves, Lara and Alister, who just wanted to steal anything, from food to money, to sustain themselves, end up involved in a grand hunt for long-lost artifacts of the doomed island, known as Atlantis, thanks to blind luck and their skills.</p><p>However, other factions get interested in it, either with good intentions, like Keepers of Artifacts, with the intent of getting famous, such as Cazadores de Tesoros, or with malicious ones.</p><p>What follows is an adventure that may change their lives forever.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Across the Sea of War [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989742</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Meet the Thieves</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, as the title suggests, this is the first book of the trilogy, known as 'Across the Sea of War'. And this is the first story for a franchise that I'm only relegated for a causal viewer (one that doesn't have the games, but searches and gains information on the matter through the wikis), that being the Tomb Raider franchise.</p><p>And with that said, I'll mainly base the story of the first book with the Legend Timeline (well, it will be its own thing, but will roughly follow the third and final game from that timeline, Underworld), with some bits of elements from Survivor Timeline sprinkled in.</p><p>And so, enjoy my first attempt at TR AU fic.</p><p>Book One Opening Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzOgoLjHLk</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <em>"Some tales can be made up, just for fun. But there are some tales that can catch your interest, the ones that may call you for an adventure.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It's funny, how literature, legends and folklore can inspire others to relive the adventures the characters have gone through — and how it can be passed from one generation to another.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But when that legend comes to life, that's where it gets into the uncharted territories — such is the case of the legend of <strong>The Grand Hunt.</strong> This is such tale that'll be told.<br/></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Many have relived it, and there's only one thing to tell:</em>
</p><p>
  <em>That legend is something to behold."<br/></em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><h2>
  <strong> <em>Across the Sea of War</em> </strong>
</h2><p> </p><h2>
  <strong> <em>Book One: The Grand Hunt</em> </strong>
</h2><hr/><p> </p><p>  If there's one word to describe the current state of Netralek Port, it's a nightmare.</p><p>There's the echoing ringing of the bells to signify evacuation for the innocent, the noise that reminds to every mortal that death is inescapable, if they don't act. Accompanying the eternal noises is the massive, swirling, dancing and searing combination of orange, gold-yellow and red colors, known as the fire, mercilessly destroying everything in its path, by pummeling, crushing and burning the isolated houses and taverns that define this place. The stone roads are covered in ruins, bloodshed, and freshly stabbed, decapitated, disemboweled human corpses that litter them, if they're not swarmed by the armor-wearing undead creatures at the same time. The sky, which is already covered in dark-grey clouds, as if it's prepared itself for the destructive battle, is added with an infernal look by the gradually rising smoke from the firestorm, consisting of hellish colors of black and orange. In short, it is outright Hell for the port.</p><p>On one of the stone roads, one individual, who happens to be scratched, with some wounds even bleeding, and bruised, is running on it, panicking and in a desperate search of one faction she belongs to. The brown eyes are wide open from the shock of what they're seeing right now, wildly swinging to go along with the head turning from left to right and vice versa, also doing the same to the ponytail. The clothes, which consist of a simple snow-cyan, short-sleeved, Victorian Era-style buttoned shirt, brown pants and black combat boots, are badly tattered throughout the hellish damage the enemy faction is doing to the port, with the former two having several torn holes and slashes. And her wrist and right hand are covered in a strange moss, as she's holding onto the sword.</p><p>That person is none other than Lara Croft, a member of the Keepers of Artifacts faction, who has been separated from the rest of the crew during this battle, that will surely change the status of the Netralek Port forever. She stops by and hides in one of the many barrels, so as not to be seen by one ivory-skinned and vein-revealing figure that's been hunting her, whose face is covered by both a white mask with red streaks on the cheeks and brow, and amber yellow eyes with middle-size white dots on the pupils shine through the holes of it, and a raven hood that fits with the pure black, short-sleeved, leather v-shaped outfit that covers both the torso and abdomen, with the top having a triangular cut, exposing the cleavage, fingerless gloves on the hands, and boots. Clutching onto the oddly-shaped sword with random lines that surround both the blade, that has three floating, glowing cyan balls around the curvy points and central ridges of the dual blades, and the hilt, which has a strange gem on the Chappe, Lara tries to look around to make herself sure that she's not seen by the individual, and upon seeing through the small hole that the latter has passed by it, she sighs in relief.</p><p>But suddenly, a dark-grey blade with glowing amber-yellow sharp lines stabs through the wood, making her yelp in horror, as it then goes up, destroying the only means to hide herself from the figure. The figure then pushes down the destroyed barrel, thus pushing off Lara too to the stone road, which she then gets up and dashes to attack the figure, by rising her sword above her head and then immediately diving it. However, with relative ease of using just the index and middle finger on the right hand, the individual blocks the dive of the blade, just before it can touch her head, confusing her.</p><p>"Admit it: you're not gonna survive. I'll make sure that your punishment from me is as painful as it can get," the figure says in a baritone version of Lara's original voice, giving off the evidence that it's been created as her doppelganger.</p><p>"I'm not going to give up, not until I find my friends," Lara retorts wrathfully. "And also, you think that wearing everything black makes you more intimidating, which actually makes you look ridiculous."</p><p>"I highly doubt it," the masked individual murmurs as a counterargument.</p><p>The figure then swings the right forearm to the left, flinging the strange sword to the cement wall of one of the few intact houses, and then brutally beats Lara, which she has no chance to block, since her sword has been thrown off from her hand. After that moment of brutality, the former forcibly grabs the latter by the neck and brings her closer, letting her to look into the person's eyes, with fear seared onto her mind.</p><p>"You're just too afraid to tell that truth: you lost the game. Your friends are either dead, or chickened out, like the cowards they truly are. Now, you'll be under our trap, and don't even think to get out of there," it explains nonchalantly.</p><p>With that, it then turns the sword the figure holds into the hammer and sways it right to Lara's face, the former of whom is unable to react in a fast way, before the moment happens. And when it does happen, not only does it severely injure her, it also outright knocks her out cold, as her body falls to the stone road and droplets of blood begin to seep out of the holes the teeth used to be in. After she did so, the individual grabs one of the legs and begins to drag the unconscious body through the path.</p><p>But what happened? What has led to such moment? To give an answer to those questions, let's travel a few weeks back to investigate on what transpired those events to occur...</p><p> </p><hr/><h4>
  <strong> <em>A few weeks ago...</em> </strong>
</h4><hr/><p> </p><p>  Before the notorious fight that will destroy the port, Netralek Port is actually a small village, just that it has various ports, that contain many of the well known battle ships, which makes several members of the active factions to metaphorically salivate at the sight of these huge wooden beasts that can protect the crew from injuries and sustain enough damage throughout the adventures on the sea. The houses itself are made in elegant, classical style of the era they are built on, usually two-floor ivory tower-like homes, with some of them even having leather red or brown blankets as a secondary roof, supported by two large sticks. It's also well-known for various pubs scattered around the marketplaces, which are in itself a good place to sell anything, the most famous one being 'Beckham's Tavern', owned by Tavok Beckham. Usually, the citizens spend their time either walking on the stone paths, or holding onto their carts to drag off the bags of various things, put above the rectangular boxes, whether it's food, weapons, toys or something else entirely.</p><p>And the sky, unlike the eventual dark-grey clouds that surround it, is cloudless and sea-blue, allowing the gold-yellow sun to shine around the village's roads and locations, allowing the citizens to take the sunlight in. Seldom, a swirl-shaped or puff-shaped cloud slowly comes around, maybe once or twice tries to cover up the sun like a blanket, but it often fails, as it continues to float around the sky, like a slowly swimming orca in the waters.</p><p>Sometimes, simple four-wheeled carriages that are helped by the black horses, accompanied with the galloping noises and the irregular neighing, along with the coachmen, can appear at the stone roads, making the citizens to back off to the side and allowing them to ride peacefully. And in one of them, on the rumble seat, sits the individual, with a long-sleeved, buttoned grey shirt, tied next to the dark-grey head cover behind it, a dark-blue waistcoat above it, grey pants and shoes. Whenever the hood is off (he usually likes to hide his head beneath it), it reveals a shaved beard, light-blue eyes, brown hair that reaches to the nape, and glasses he often wears. He's nicknamed 'The Thief of Netralek Port', but his real name is Alister Fletcher, a once poor man, who would later learn the mastery of thievery by himself, by going theft after theft, usually for food. But for this purpose, he has now resorted to stealing gold, which has gotten him to the trouble, whenever he is facing with the custodians that protect the streets from the villains and thieves like him.</p><p>Yesterday, he was caught stealing gold coins from the bank, which was then spotted by the broadcloth jacket-wearing guards of the village/port. And despite his attempts to escape from their grasp, he eventually got arrested. And with that, he was sent to the prison cell for a short period of time, before being transported onto the carriage, now sitting next to one of the same guards that supposedly arrested him. Looking at him, he taps him on the shoulder, to which the latter glares at the thief, which leads Alister to be shocked and go back to the original sitting pose he's been in for the past few hours, resembling something of a statue, with only the occasional glances at the still-frowning guard. Only a few moments pass, where the guard finally asks him, after getting frustrated with Fletcher's tendency to steal, "What is it with you that you end up enraging us and wasting our precious time on petty crimes you commit?!"</p><p>"Do I look like I give a damn?" Alister asks back, breathing out in irritation. "Why do you think I'm the only reason you waste your damn time, whooping my ass off like the punching bag that I am? And besides, you, though accidentally, admitted that you're willing to arrest anyone for petty-" Before he can continue to rant on such, the guard then points the rifle to him, though finally shutting him up, only vexes him further, and at this point, his limit has been reached.</p><p>Kicking the guard to the face, pushing him out of the carriage first and landing him to the road, which leads to the carriage door being bursted open, Alister jumps out of the rumble seat and out of the doorway, and clutches to the handle conveniently placed above the open door, which he uses it to climb up to the roof of the wagon. After doing so, he spots the aforementioned coachman, who in turn, looks behind his shoulder and tries to call for other guardsmen to arrive with the thief, only to be also pushed off from his horse by the former, when he jumps off it and safely lands to the saddle. He then pulls off the surrounding half-circular holder that keeps the horse from running away from the carriage, leading the latter to run as fast, just as the guard and the coachman get up. As soon as the guard has finished rubbing his face from the hard hit, he removes his hand and sees the stopped carriage, comprehending that Alister has done it again.</p><p>"Dammit, someone catch that freaking thief," he shouts loudly and angrily, leading his other guards, and himself, to start to chase Fletcher.</p><p>Just as the guards have geared up for an yet another chase, Alister continues to ride with his horse, looking from his back from time to time to make himself sure that he's far from the custodians. For the most part, he remains that way, until he encounters the stack of the guards that block one of the ways, leading him to first to pull the ropes that bind the saddle, leading to the horse to slow down, then to neigh and swing his hooves in circles, and soon, he changes the direction to the left. But as the black horse has managed to do so, upon turning to the left again, he throws Alister off the saddle. Roughly landing to the ground, the thief rises himself up to the standing position, only to be greeted with the pointing of the rifles from the guards, who are now circling around him, one by one. Glancing to every single custodian, he decides to put a fight against them, whilst keeping his smirk on his face.</p><p>Doing a rather complex fighting move, in form of a tornado kick, he manages to kick out two of the guards onto the ground, as most of them manage to dodge it, which is unfortunate for them, as Alister then unleashes one punch to the face after another, making them unconscious for a short period of time. Eventually, he makes a run for it, just as the remaining protectors run for him yet again.</p><p>"<span class="tlid-translation translation"><span class="">Hey, hey, hey! Stop it now, thief," one active guardsman screams, with no response from Fletcher.</span></span></p><p>But ultimately, that chase has to end, and this is provided later on, where Alister, after minutes of fleeing from the keepers, is soon pulled over to the shadows in between of two houses, where he's then dropped to the cover, in form of a flipped table. He then gets up again to sit, and tries to form a protest, but is immediately quieted by his friend, Lara, whose face is covered with a brown headscarf.</p><p>"You don't want to gain any additional attention from these freaks?" she asks with a whisper, to which her buddy shakes his head. "Good, then stay quiet."</p><p>She then peeks barely above the cover to see the three guardians stopping by and inspecting every single detail, to make themselves sure that the one they're looking for is here. However, after several moments, one guard, in anger from the fact that Alister is "nowhere" to be found, throws off his rifle to the road and yells, "Damn it! Where did the thief hide this time?"</p><p>"Who? Who are you referring to anyways?" another guard questions.</p><p>"Don't you understand?! We are talking about Alister Fletcher, and not to mention his assistant, Lara Croft, you idiot," the third one responds in vexation.</p><p>The second guard tries to flimsily justify on why the aforementioned Alister now resorts to stealing, saying, "So what? He's probably grown poor, or something, which may drive certain people into committing theft-", until a pretty hard knock on the head from the third guard's rifle interrupts it, with the former now grasping onto the brow and groaning in slight pain.</p><p>"Poverty is no excuse to steal food and gold, sir," the third guard objects to the lame justification. "Oh, and there's also the fact that they want to worsen our lives, and for that, I give you another hit to the forehead!" And he does just that again, making the aforementioned guard to fall down. "Come on, boys, we're just wasting our time."</p><p>As the conversation ends, the three go about their separate ways, wanting to guard a different place with a purpose, rather than pointlessly chasing around the thieves that are well-known to fool them for a period, before they end up giving up on the chase and going to do something else. For the latter, they have also been gone, though they do stay at the port village for a bit, before they can go back home, to witness the event that had been advertised since the dawn of that day: the arrival of the so-called King of Netralek Port.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>   The Sun is gradually going down more and more, nearly entering to the imaginary border that divides between the sky and land, giving off the last of today's light to the sea, coloring the sky in a calming combination deep blue, orange, red and bright yellow, and handing out the alabaster light illuminating through the calming sea water. The few seagulls, even if colored black due to the light, are flying and flapping their wings to add up to the speed, cawing from time to time. The streets are already being lightened by the torches on the sticks and oil lamps, and the windows are also light up from the latter being placed on the table or on the balconies, though that's reserved only for the ones who don't want to be part of the patiently waiting mob, and only want to see it from slightly far off.</p><p>But when it comes to the ones who have come to the center of the village, which is defined by a large, wooden circular arena, a pulpit in the middle of it and a middle-size bell attached to it, the mob is massive, comprising of three-hundred and fifty civilians standing there and waiting for the 'hero' to come in. Some of them are chattering about who is he in the first place, few are striking out the conversations on what he's done for the village, while others are just silently standing around. The only people that seem eager for something else are Alister and Lara, who are under their respective hoods again, who are passing through the citizens, by asking them to move off, in case of the latter, or shoving them off, for the former, before crouching down to hide again, upon hearing the bells ringing from a tall male with green eyes and short black hair, covered by a magenta turban, chiseled chin, an average length goatee, wearing a red and gold cloak surrounding his body, with a checkered, buttoned shirt, dark-beige pants and shoes under it.</p><p>"Here's our hero, ladies and gentlemen!" the man, known as Jeffrey Lang, shouts out and extends his left arm to show a shadow emerging on the roof.</p><p>Here, the man is jumping down from a roof and landing to the small circular stage, greeted by the clapping from the throng: Raphael LeGume, the self-proclaimed King of the port. He's a young adult male, probably in mid-20s, with a moderate skin color, short, curly light-brown hair, and brown eyes. Wearing a dark-red broadcloth jacket, with a white buttoned shirt under it, equally-colored pants, a black captain's hat and dark-grey boots. After landing, he gets up and equally greets the cheering crowd with a wave of the hand and smiling, laughing in satisfaction that he's adored by many. Alister and Lara, though, don't take it kindly to Raphael's ego being stroked by the general public.</p><p>"Dammit," Alister begins to say, "I hate it when Ralph the idiot gets all the adoration, like he's the Son of God."</p><p>"I mean, what did he accomplish?" Lara questions on why Raphael is so lauded. "Besides making a fool out of himself, back when he tried to defeat the thieves?"</p><p>"Who's saying a lot negative things about me?" Raphael asks in an overly theatrical manner, then comes closer to the crowd and begins to inspect every single person, who has uttered the 'hateful words' to him. Witnessing the silence the people are exhibiting, he asks again, "So, no one wants to fess up to the King of Netralek Port, eh? Too scared to talk? You better remember, dirty poor peasants, that I'll come in and crush you all down like the pathetic ants you really are the moment I hear the hateful words you spew out of your filthy mouths!" To demonstrate on what he'll do to the ones he perceives to be uttering 'hateful words', or in other words, criticism of his huge ego he has gotten from the same citizens, LeGume grabs the metal torch and throws it to the public.</p><p>Only two of them get caught in the blaze, as their skin and clothes are set on fire and they end up in hysterical panic, running away and desperately trying to put the dancing flames from their sizzling skin and the soot and ash-filled outfits. The ones that aren't caught on fire end up giving in to horror and they too run off shrieking, and that includes Croft and Fletcher, who do steal some small bags that the mob has dropped onto the stone road. Though, Raphael doesn't care, as he continues to rant, "I am the King of Netralek Port! If you don't worship me, I'm gonna make that fact a crystal-hard one: you're all pathetic, sniveling, cowardly sheep, who have committed a blasphemy by not doing that!" However, when he has finished ranting, he opens his eyes to see that the center of the city is empty, except him and Jeffrey on the stage. "Hello? Is anybody here?" he asks in confusion.</p><p>"Maybe you should try to keep your temper in check, Mister Raphael," Jeffrey advises to the bewildered man, only for the latter to lash out at him with a sway of his rapier he usually keeps in the scabbard, located on his right hip.</p><p>"You do not utter such words of hatred to me," Raphael threatens in vindictiveness, "or else you're going to face my rage once more. Is that clear to you?"</p><p>Gulping in fear, Jeffrey nods. "Y-Yes sir," he says. "I promise not to utter them."</p><p>"Good." The King of Netralek Port then puts his rapier back to the scabbard and starts to walk away from the mess he himself has created, ignoring the charred corpses of the two people lying on the street, their expressions of abject terror seared onto their faces.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>   "Fletcher. Here." Lara hands up a red apple to Alister after she pulled it up from one of the bags, who the male thief takes a bite and starts to chew it. "Can't believe it that Raphael would react so negatively to us criticizing his unchecked ego."</p><p>In the aftermath of Raphael's temper tantrum, two thieves are walking on the dirt path that leads as both an entrance and an exit to Netralek Port. With sloshing sounds, due to them walking on a slightly liquefied ground, Alister takes a moment to see the palm trees slightly moving, due to the breeze of the night. As the half-moon has replaced the Sun as the dominant force of the sky for this night, accompanied with his small shining dots it calls stars, the thieves soon arrive at the small, white cement cabin with a twig roof and a small arrow compass, also made of branches, standing on top it. Next to the cabin is a set of stairs that leads to the basement, where only stacks of hay are lying on the floor, along with four small pallet packs.</p><p>"Thank you, miss Croft, for giving me a treat," Alister gratefully says, before opening the wooden door, leading to the sparse living room, consisting only of a table with two chairs, a purple carpet with silver engravings hanging on one wall, and a single bed for himself, which irritates Lara, since she has to sleep on the floor next to the bed. The only source of light is of an actual light bulb, but on the verge of permanent deactivation, as evidenced by the irregular flickering of the light. "Yeah, I admit, I do own a pretty bad home for us to live in. That's a life of a stealer for you."</p><p>He pulls backwards one chair and sits down, then moves it forward closer to the table, followed by his friend doing the same. This is where the thieves first pull off the first bags, place them to the table, and untie the knots, before turning it downward and spilling out the following: the bags with leaves drawn on them have apples, the ones with a dollar sign have gold, bronze and silver coins of various sizes, and other bags contain scrolls, some of them written like news reports, others have odd paintings and autographs signed by Raphael. "Well, at least we have something worthy of a prize," Alister remarks, seeing the things lying on the wooden surface. "But tomorrow, we're gonna go big."</p><p>"What do you mean by 'go big?'" Lara asks, confused by his new promise. And that's where Fletcher places a large scroll and opens it, revealing a drawing of a huge windmill and a warehouse next to it, confusing her even further. "Wait, what? D-Do you mean-?"</p><p>"That's right, tomorrow, my plan, which I call 'Big Robbery' will commence!" he exclaims proudly and loudly. "You'll be involved in it, too, by the way."</p><p>"But, why?"</p><p>Yet another robbery? Given the thrills it can have, it's no surprise that Alister would aim for something bigger, which may explain on why he has chosen the two locations as the main target for his mission. But, she thinks that this will be hard, given his impulsive behavior and his tendency to think of short-term actions, while ignoring the long-term consequences that would befall for both him and Lara. She's seen that, whenever she's dragged along to some of the missions by him, where both of them have been arrested by the active guards, but as usual, thanks to the sly methods to escape, they do just that, angering them even further and resulting in chases that could've been avoided, had Alister tried to think of the realistic answers to his ridiculous plans.</p><p>"You know me," Alister begins to speak, removing his glasses off his face and placing them to the table. "I was the one who taught you how to be a sneaky and successful thief. If we find gold on the warehouse, we can be filthy rich!" He then imagines himself sitting on a golden throne, moving his leg back and forth and wearing golden ornaments around his body, surrounding by high stacks of coins, few of them endlessly falling. "You love it when you finally become rich, eh?"</p><p>Lara, however, is obviously skeptical of Alister's intentions. "Yeah, and so what? There may be alot of well-trained guards, willing to shoot us, should we make a mistake. And you think that your plan is infallible." And with that objection posed, Alister's imagination ends and it brings him back to reality, now back to his thief self and shaking his head for a moment to help himself bring back into the real world. "Do you contemplate that idea I posed to you?"</p><p>"Uh... y-yeah, yeah, I-I do," he stammers, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. He then starts to walk towards his own bed and lies down, not even bothering to pull up the blanket to himself. "Anyways, listen: get some rest, Mrs. Lara. I don't want to see you so tired, since the Big Robbery requires a lot of endurance and energy."</p><p>"I..." the female pawn finally reluctantly sighs, after her attempt at forming a protest fails. "I understand, Fletcher." And soon, she goes to the floor makeshift bed and lies down, just as the light is turned off, leaving the room completely in the darkness. "All right, good night."</p><p>"Good night to you too," he says.</p><p>And so, they both fall asleep, as they mentally prepare themselves for the mission.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> <strong>Next time, on 'The Grand Hunt':</strong> </em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>The plan that the thieves have prepared for the 'Big Robbery' has finally been established and shall commence tomorrow, and it will involve a warehouse and a windmill. How will it look like? What is the goal of the mission? And will the thieves pull this one off successfully?</strong> </em>
</p><p>
  <em> <strong> <span class="spoilerText-3p6IlD"> <span class="inlineContent-3ZjPuv">Don't miss the exciting next chapter of Across the Sea of War, Book One: "The Big Robbery"!</span> </span> </strong> </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Big Robbery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>  <em>Lara is silently sitting on top of the bell tower, next to the copper bell, patiently awaiting for the arrival of the morning. The silence of it gives her a much-needed comfort of viewing the moon gradually descend further into the imaginary border, so as meet with the Sun.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Or, at least that would have, if it isn't for the fact that she keeps noticing a shadow leaping from roof to roof.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Trying her best to ignore the inescapable reality, it's only the aforementioned sound of loud knocks on each roof that gets Lara to take notice of what is actually happening right now, but by the time she does, it may be a case of 'too little, too late'.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Normally, she is on the bell tower, because of two main reasons: the familiar sense of calmness and the melodic sound coming from the bell to remind the citizens to the arrival of each hour. But, whenever someone interrupts that, like a bad musician playing a sour note, she can only hope for one thing: to bring peace back and to punish the one who keeps disrupting it.<br/></em>
</p>
<p><em>Jumping down from the tower and landing onto the stone road, Lara then spots the figure running like a cheetah, nearly avoiding her glance. She backs off slightly, her face twisted into an enraged glare. <strong>Who is chasing after me? Show yourself, intruder!</strong> She readies herself into the battle, by spreading her legs and clenching her hands into fists, still keeping the scowl</em> <em>on her face, but no one shows up, not even the figure she has seen</em><em>. Frustrated by this, she makes a tiny growl and starts to run to the direction the individual has been in. Maybe doing so will make it appear.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>She soon enters the two-story house and begins to investigate on where the fast-running figure is in for now. After she goes to the second floor of the house, it doesn't take a few minutes for her to notice a recognizable mask on the face; she cannot feel the cold glare of those amber-yellow eyes ever again.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Oh, so you came in. Not so surprising," a baritone voice says.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Lara, startled by this, jerks up and sees the known attire the figure is wearing right now: a raven hood, a short-sleeved black leather V-shaped outfit, covering the torso and abdomen, with a triangular cut on the former that showcases the cleavage, fingerless gloves and boots. Beneath the mask, the figure seems to be smirking smugly, as if she has caught her prey a little too early.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Already a scaredy-cat? How pathetic."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"First of all," Lara snaps, "who are you in the first place?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>The figure leans closer to her human version. "Forgive me for glaring at you. It's not like there's something I'd like to show you for a good while, and it seems you are interested in who I am, miss Lara Croft."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Lara is about to retort some more, but when she hears her name being casually mentioned by the person, she freezes. "What? You know my name?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Yes, and it's sad to see, when I mention it to you, forgetful simpleton," the figure says again, now in a contemptuous manner. </em>
</p>
<p><em>Pulling off the sword from the scabbard,</em> <em> of which</em> <em> the lines and the jewel on the hilt become glowing yellow after that, the stranger swings wildly towards Lara, and that point, a large slash is formed across her face, between her eyes. She, yelping in sheer pain, covers her face with hands, not noticing the covering of them in blood; never has she encountered someone, who can intentionally scar her, but the latter has done just that. How is it able to do that, and why is she doing that to her? Yet here she is, on all-fours and hiding her scars with her blood-soaked hands.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>The figure chuckles, seeing Lara surrender like that, though the latter does bring her head up. "Do you honestly think you're gonna win this?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"There is no way you're going to win," Lara mutters angrily through her gritted teeth, but that gets her another laceration, this time to her neck, causing her to fall down to the floor with a thump. As the blood freely pours out of the two gashes, she can only make choking noises and slightly rise her hand for a desperate help, as her life is gradually taken away.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Soon, the figure comes closer to Lara, kneels, and whispers to her, "Sweet dreams.", before uttering 'Shh...' and putting an index finger to her masked mouth.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>  Lara emerges out of the huge hay hill with a yell of horror and straws on her hair and clothes, few of them floating to the floor, due to the former's action. Noticing them, she immediately swoops them out of the two, before proceeding to look around the basement, where she has supposedly ended up in.</p>
<p>A familiar noise comes out of someone's mouth. A goat is silently eating another hill of hay, chewing the straws with his teeth. "Wait, why does Alister own a goat, of all pets?" She pushes herself off from the hay hill, spilling more straws to the floor, just in time for Alister to open the basement door and wave at her, to which she does the same. He then comes closer to the goat to give him a pat to the head.</p>
<p>"Ha-hey there, little Bonn," he gladly greets his pet goat, but that gets Lara into a state of confusion. She goes closer to him and tilts her head to the right, still bewildered by the name. He ends up staring into Lara's confused look, then he tries to take her out of the basement, probably due to him realizing of what he did the night before, not noticing Bonn coming along with him.</p>
<p>His expression goes into embarrassment, as he scratches the top of his head.</p>
<p>"Gee, why did I lock you in the basement with Bonn?"</p>
<p>"What?! Did you drag me there with your goat?! Was it-"</p>
<p>"Yes, it was unintentional, and I say sorry for that."</p>
<p>"Oh... so that makes sense."</p>
<p>"And the goat slept on top of the hay hill you were slightly buried beneath."</p>
<p>"<em>Alister!</em>"</p>
<p>"Okay, again, I apologize for locking you there. I didn't know that I did just that, because I was sleepwalking," Alister explains, nervously laughing, upon hearing his friend's angry response to his accidental revelation. "But still, I hope that you will get along with Bonn well."</p>
<p>Lara, huffing out in irritation, walks off upstairs, so as to prepare herself for the mission, known as 'The Big Robbery'. "Well then, Fletcher. Would you join in for preparations?" she asks, looking from behind.</p>
<p>Alister grumbles to himself several of the choice words, before looking at his friend again and nodding. By the time he does, he looks on Bonn arriving back to the hay hill and falling down to the straws, and soon falling asleep, making him lowly smile. Bonn is actually the one that Fletcher didn't capture, but rather, found him, while the former limped around the stone road after being abandoned by his previous owner. He then closes the basement door and follows her, who, at this point, has already readied her hand-made bow, and picks up a pitchfork as his makeshift weapon.</p>
<p><em>Bonn, we'll be here soon. For now, rest.</em> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>    Around ten minutes later, Lara and Alister finally make it to the two main locations: the windmill and the warehouse, located just near the cliff that's above Netralek Port. The two places having a comfortable walking distance, being around five meters from their cabin, is the second perk that has come from living in the latter. Unless it's for absolute reasons, the thieves don't need an additional vehicle to ride into. They hide beneath the bushes, with only a telescope from Alister peeking out to view the locations themselves and thinking on where he and Lara should go into. He first puts its focus on the first location: the windmill.</p>
<p>The windmill itself is a very tall building, somewhere around three hundred meters in height and seventy meters in width, built with ivory bricks for its main base and dark-oak wood for roofs, supporting pillars and sails. Speaking of them, the sails are calmly moving around clockwise, supported by the light wind for this morning, activating the corks and inventions inside the building to convert the wheat seeds to flour, so as to make bags of it. The wood floors are elegantly placed, even if they're filled with thatches and the before-mentioned wheat seeds. Few of the denizens reside there, helping with the work of the aforementioned corks, who are grinding against each other and making clanking noises by doing so. Outside, there are three guards that stand on the wooden, circular floors stuck to the walls, located just a bit below the sails, their frowning expression of strictness and order seared onto their faces.</p>
<p><em>Nope, let's check on the</em> <em>warehouse</em>, he thinks, before shifting the telescope's focus to the before-mentioned place. Now, when it comes to the warehouse, it is built with bricks, just like with the windmill, but it has six main floors, with the additional one being located below the steel dark-brown roof, and a large, metal sign hanging on that says 'Nelsen Warehouse', written in bold black and in all capitals. Inside, each floor is defined by a stone floor, hook-like wooden treadmills that drag anything to the rectangular tube, which can send them to the big box outside, six lamps and three large metal pallet packs that contain boxes and crates for the ships that might arrive to the port village and for workers to bring them to the former. Fletcher does notice only two of them walking down the path and carrying two big crates to the village and to the decks of the port. The attention is then given to the guards, the ones he hates so much. <em>Dammit, not these again</em>, he muses in irritation, before pulling his telescope off and looks at Lara. "So, either their way or the highway. Which path would you pick?"</p>
<p>"The highway," she responds immediately. "I mean, I always knew you'd pick a warehouse to rob. You're kind of a Hothead Fletcher, to be honest with you."</p>
<p>Alister chuckles at the nickname, before telling, "Alright, you can quip whatever you want, but we cannot waste any time. Let's start the mission, shall we?"</p>
<p>Both thieves give a fist bump to each other, and get out of the bush to sneakily go to the right wall. After doing that, Alister extends his arms to help with Lara to get up to the open window, at which the latter puts her left leg to the hands and with his help of rising his hands, manages to get into the first floor, and then extends her right hand to help with Alister to get to the same floor. Upon entering there, they notice two guards walking next to the two, and so, they decide to hide in one of the pallet packs, occasionally peering out.</p>
<p>"At least those nuisances, known as the Thieves of Netralek Port won't come by and ruin our lives again," one guard says exasperatedly, not noticing Lara and Alister sneakily tip-toeing behind the back of him and climbing up to the metal racket via a ladder.</p>
<p>"Don't get your hopes so high, Benton," another guard interjects. "Fletcher and Croft can use their sneaky ways to mess up with-"</p>
<p>A bag of sand suddenly descends from the ceiling and crashes onto the floor, releasing it in form of a puff of smoke. The guards don't even take a moment to react as it happens, and as a result, they get covered in it and they cough a lot, as particles of them have ended up inside their mouths. And also, it gives the thieves the perfect opportunity to distract them for a long time, as Alister emerges out of his hiding spot from the above and unleashes a metal baton. Shouting emphatically, he hits the first guard after landing, knocking him out, before doing the same to the second one. After doing so, he whistles out to Lara to come out of the hiding place too, and she does so, landing to the floor.</p>
<p>"Well, would you look at that," Alister quips, as he then points to the unconscious guards with a baton. "Whining about their lives being worse, and, well, I delivered them just that."</p>
<p>Lara laughs at his bad joke. Maybe it's because of the context regarding him knocking out the custodians moments before, or his delivery sounds so nonchalantly, as if he has just had a good day of theft. After she stops laughing, she and Fletcher jump onto the following metal racket, sliding through the wide split and push the two wooden crates out with legs, breaking them and spilling out the bananas and gold bars onto it. They soon collect them to the bags they have picked up on their cabin, just before that trip to the warehouse, and then they run to the staircase that leads to the second floor, which has the same characteristics as the ground floor, but it has a chute conveniently placed on the center of it, that may lead to somewhere, probably beneath it, which might be a trap to them.</p>
<p>The other issue? There are more guards along the way, this time some of them even squatting down on top of the metal rackets and preparing their flintlock rifles, as they point to somewhere around this floor, which makes Lara and Alister to become worried, as one wrong move will prove either damage, or fatal consequences. So, they begin to slowly walk around, cautiously looking around the scowling glares, tension rising in the air, as the guards gradually prepare to fire their bullets to either of them, still keeping their scowls. The thieves have to remain silent, too, as one small squeak will bring down the metaphorically speaking house of cards. And thus, they have to resort to the tip-toeing method again and crouching, as well as trying sign language for the first time.</p>
<p>When they pin to the wall, where the protectors won't see them, Alister looks at Lara and makes what looks like stacking one fist to another, and immediately swinging them from one side to another, saying non-verbally that if a victory can be secured, she and him will need to try hard to either distract them, or knock them out. The latter can only nod in silence, just as the former has already begun his way to search for more things to steal, before entering to the third floor. Emitting a low noise of urgency and fear out of her mouth, she guardedly walks along with him, stealing the things he has just did, including the ones he has left, just for her. Lara can only fearfully glance at the consistent death stares of the custodians, some of them pointing their readied weapons, few of them just standing, but nonetheless can pull a bad punch, should they get enraged and others continue to load their weapons up with bullets and stuffing powder to the hole of the gun, so that they won't explode in their face.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the successful stealthy method, Alister sits down to the first stair of the stairway that leads to the third floor and sighs in relief, before starting to check on what he has captured. Looking on the first bag, he sees the statues of Raphael and small containers of food and red cans of water, which he picks up the first can, and opens it with a knife he has picked, then proceeding to drink it, just as Lara comes to him to present her own bag of stolen items.</p>
<p>Turns out that she has taken various scrolls, fruits, like bananas, oranges and apples (her and Alister's favourite), and even jewelry, such as emeralds, diamonds, and rubies, while her friend is resting, which Fletcher shouts out loudly upon seeing this, "YES! You did it, just as better as me!", jumping out of the stair and landing to the floor, producing a noisy booming noise that echoes throughout the location, along with his voice. And unfortunately, this gets the attraction of the guards, whose frowns immediately turn to clenched teeth and furrowed expressions, swords unsheathed and guns drawn forward to them.</p>
<p>"Damn it, Fletcher, we had that golden opportunity, and you shot it down!" Lara exclaims angrily, before asking, "And what are we going to do now?"</p>
<p>"I only have one: to RUN!" Alister screams in response, leading him and Lara to begin to run away, though the guards begin to chase them too.</p>
<p>The chase extends even to the final floor, and while the running continues, the duo pursues with the stealing of more things, such as crates of more fruits, like kiwi and more minuscule statues, all the while under the barrage of gunshots and the slashes that they luckily dodge. The soldiers are, sadly, damaging the equipment of the warehouse, such as the pallet pack that fall like dominoes, due to the hurled guards that are thrown by the more impatient ones, their own weapons, such as the aforementioned exploding of the guns and the breaking of the blades when being hit by a rather tough object, like cement. Throughout the whole journey, the thieves' emotions run like a wild river, changing from fear to determination and back to the former, almost in a flash, depending on what situation they have ended up in.</p>
<p>All the while, the soldiers, despite their aggressive demeanor and the damage to the building they are supposed to protect, are still persistent in their goal to capture the two again, though there are few, who are tired of endlessly running around the warehouse. And it is evident by what happens next: when they arrive to the fifth floor of the huge location, two of the guards pass out from fatigue and fall onto the ground, while some of them are panting and leaning against the wall to take rest. One of them, Hudson, the bearded leader of the ones dedicated to guarding it, and the one who sees the tired companions mumbling, is sick of this, as he growls in rage and clenches his hand into a fist. And so, he runs forwards to the big bell, placed next to the treadmill, tied with a rope, and pulls it repeatedly to signal to Raphael that help is sorely needed. Due to this action, the ringing becomes loud and echoing throughout the place and extends to near the village.</p>
<p>Outside of the storeroom and on the streets, LeGume, who has his back pressed onto the wall and is preparing to eat a cheese sandwich just before that moment, immediately hears the chiming of the bell, stopping his break and leading him to look at where it's coming at. He soon begins to run, but unlike the benefit that living in a cabin that's five meters off the warehouse has given to Lara and Alister, the distance from Netralek Port to Nelsen Warehouse takes about seven meters, and that's not even including the rocks to avoid. This is why it takes him for quite a while to get there, since, during running, he trips on them for, presumably, three times, leading him to trip and fall to the ground, dirtying his clothes and face in the process. Finally, he pushes the doors open wide with a loud bang, due to them hitting the wall, and just before he can make a few steps, Hudson rushes towards Raphael, in a state of absolute horror, his turquoise eyes stinging due to tears running from it.</p>
<p>"You've gotta help us, sir! We are under attack by the thieves! Please, help us!" Hudson pleads, sobbing loudly and rocking the 'King' to and fro.</p>
<p>"Jesus, man, calm down," Raphael calls out, snapping the bearded guard out of the state of horror. "Would you be kind to explain, Mister Hudson?"</p>
<p>"Yes, LeGume," the bearded guard replies, and follows it up by nodding. He then goes back into hysteria, as he explains to Raphael of what's happening right now. "So, remember the thieves you mentioned to us, um.. Lara Croft and Alister Fletcher, I believe? They entered to this place and kicked the protectors' asses, all the while stealing things! Can you, at least, put them down at once?!"</p>
<p>Raphael stands shocked, only blinking occasionally, desperate to collect all the small pieces of information that has been dumped into his mind and put them all together to make one coherent picture. He, after comprehending on what has happened, shakes his head to bring himself back to the reality, and gives off one command, "Send in the competent guards, sir. Me and they will easily make them surrender."</p>
<p>"Yes sir," Hudson replies, before running off to warn other guards, leaving LeGume alone.</p>
<p>The 'King' starts to walk around the first floor, examining it carefully in case of any deviation made to it. Oddly enough, it seems to sustain the least of damage, though that's because the most damage done is above it. Though, at least unintentionally, he steps into the wooden statue, that is lying around, for some reason, with a cracking noise, and he looks down to see what he has done it, before stepping back in a short distance from it.</p>
<p><em>GOD! When will all this madness end?!, </em>Raphael thinks, frustrated and enraged, as he kicks off the broken statue of him further. He hears the whistling from the other side, which leads to him turning from behind and seeing Hudson, who has brought in the new guards, and hopefully, the more competent ones. This makes Raphael to smile wickedly, as his back-up has arrived as expected. <em>Heh, say goodbye to your hopes and dreams, thieves...</em></p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>  "Ha-ha, looks like we've gotten that lucky," Alister remarks, upon seeing a large, open treasure chest, filled with gold coins, pearl necklaces, ores and even sabres. He rubs his palms eagerly, still chuckling, while Lara is carefully looking around, checking on if there won't be any more danger.</p>
<p>By the time they have entered to the last floor, along with the spotting of the aforementioned treasure chest, it may look like as though the mission might end up in success. There it is, treasure they are most likely searching for, and if they capture it and drag it back home, they will finally become rich, just as Alister has dreamed. But then, the new guards barge the door open and, shouting repeatedly, they dash forward and corner them in a circle, their guns ready to shoot at any given opportunity. As a result, Lara and Alister are effectively trapped in a circle of guards' rifles still pointed towards the two, and it looks like they might be shot. Not helping the matters is where the known face shows up, cackling madly to the duo thieves, that being Raphael, the one who has hired the guards intentionally to screw off with the thieves. Alister immediately goes enraged at the sight of him, who has just come closer, in time for the soldiers to back off from side to side.</p>
<p>"Very well, losers," Raphael begins to mockingly say, spreading his arms, "looks like you got caught."</p>
<p>Alister immediately kicks one of the guards to the face, making him fall, and grabs the rifle, then points to the 'King'. "You again?!"</p>
<p>"What did you expect?" Raphael spits out another question. "Hudson? Or anyone else, for that matter?" Then he falls silent, waiting for Alister to retort.</p>
<p>Tension is high on the air, while Fletcher, remaining fixed in a fighting position, still pointing his gun to the 'King', all the while, Lara is standing behind him, tip-toeing around the former, so as not to disrupt the inevitable. And so, she goes closer to the chest, pulls out her bag and starts to carefully pick up the coins and ores. Meanwhile, back with the situation between Alister and Raphael, the former becomes more and more impatient by the second, fidgeting his finger closer and closer to the trigger, his left eye twitching, desiring for a chance to rip of what he calls 'a selfish buffoon' into pieces. And then... Raphael, also impatient, rushes over and accidentally pulls the trigger, emitting a loud bang from the gun, of which a bullet flies through the hole fast, which is then dodged by him, but not so much for Hudson, who has just arrived to the final floor, who gets a bullet mercilessly drilling a bloody hole to the forehead, before hitting the wall.</p>
<p>Next comes the thump, as the now-dead Hudson falls onto the floor, with the blood beginning to seep out of it and into the floor, creating a river-like trail. Everyone is left in shock of what just happened: the guards have their eyes open wide, few of them are shivering in fear. Alister is covering his mouth and his eyes widen. The latter's jaw is open wide, as she has witnessed murder in front of her eyes, along with her dropping the bag onto the floor, spilling the stolen coins in the process. Though none that has the reaction this intense is with Raphael, who begins to bawl loudly, tears running from the eyes like a raging waterfall and holds onto Hudson's corpse.</p>
<p>"Oh god, what have you done, Ralph?" One guard asks, dazed by what has occured.</p>
<p>"<em>THIS ISN'T MY FAULT!! THIS IS ALISTER, WHO SHOT HIM!</em>" Raphael screams out angrily, as he gets up and, yelling, dashes towards Alister, to which the thief reacts with another pull of the trigger, just in time for him to get tackled to the floor by the former.</p>
<p>The second bullet flies off onto the metal barrel, that contains gasoline, creating a hole, which spills it out to the floor. And, as if it's a trail of river, added by more gasoline, it goes further and further to the wooden door, seeping onto the mysterious room that contains alot of explosives, such as barrels that have powder inside and dynamites stacked in boxes. Fletcher, after getting up and pushing off Raphael, then runs forward to grab a torch, which he does and throws it to the huge puddle, inflaming it and following closer and closer to the explosives.</p>
<p>"Adios, idiots," he speaks, waving his hand, before taking Lara and the bags, and proceeding to jump off the upper window and landing onto the ground. Both thieves run off back to the cabin, leaving the guards and Raphael to stare in horror for what's to come, before immediately running off, so as to escape from the inevitable explosion.</p>
<p>Soon, a very loud boom is heard throughout the village, as the villagers, with several of them mumbling on what is happening, in an instant, turn around to see a gradually arising dark-black smoke emerging from the huge hole the explosion has left on the warehouse. Inside it, a swirling, dancing fire is seen on the windows, destroying everything in its sight, including the boxes containing important things, like artifacts and scrolls and the rackets' wooden surfaces. Then, they spot Raphael running towards them, screaming in horror as his broadcloth jacket is caught on fire, and they back off, as soon as he takes it off and throws it to the road, and begins to stomp on it repeatedly, so that he can put the fire out. One or two them gasp in fear on what the explosion has done, but that will be interrupted by someone, whose footsteps reverberate, when stepped onto the stone road, that only stops, once the distance between the former and the individual is nearly close.</p>
<p>The person in question appears to be a little taller than Raphael, when it comes to the height. He has chiseled facial features, along with a firm jaw that's covered with shaved facial hair, moderate in width and ocean-blue eyes, a pointy nose, short-length black hair, that's covered by a leather brown cowboy's hat. A dark-purple cape drapes across the upper part of the body, that has a buttoned shirt under it, his hands are covered by gold-yellow gloves, with two emeralds attached to the back of them, tight trousers and boots. Located on the left hip is a red handgun holster, embroidered with yellow knits, of which he usually hides his Remington Model 1875.</p>
<p>"Enough of fooling around, son," the figure begins to speak in an elegant tenor tone, after he crosses his arms, leading Raphael to look at him. "Honestly, I am very disappointed by what just happened."</p>
<p>"My sheriff father?!" Raphael yells nervously at the sight of his dad's arrival. He immediately falls onto his knees, and, as if he is a child, starts begging, "Please, please please please, I-I'll make it up for my screw-ups, I promise!"</p>
<p>"Do it, then," the person sternly commands, "so that I won't send you to die by a firing squad."</p>
<p>"Yes, sir," the 'King' slowly nods. He soon runs off, while the sheriff keeps on watching.</p>
<p><em>Hopefully, he won't screw it up, like in today,</em> he muses, not paying attention to the guards running towards Raphael, in an attempt to follow him and start up an invasion plan against the thieves.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>   As the sun's twilight takes over the sky for a short period and metaphorically bids hello to the slowly rising moon, who has now reached to the first quarter of its lunar phase, the tube placed onto the roof of the cabin is emitting gray smoke out of it. It turns out that in the living room, Alister is making a stew for himself and for Lara, cutting the vegetables, using a cleaver to cut up a cabbage and beetroot and a board to put the pieces to the dark-blue bowl above the fireplace, while the latter is sitting on the chair, eating a clean carrot.</p>
<p>"Well, you know what they say: eating vegetables is very beneficial to your health," Alister remarks yet again, breaking into laughter and stirring the combination with a wooden spoon.</p>
<p>Lara shortly laughs after that. "Not after that whole explosion, which, with no doubt, be the breaking point of our egomaniac rival."</p>
<p>"Heh, you don't say," he says, before pulling up a wooden plate from the floor and spilling out the stew to it. "Besides, who doesn't love a good stew?"</p>
<p>He then places it to the table, close to his friend, and his own plate afterwards. After sitting down, they start to eat the tasty meal. With the exception of the sounds of slight hitting of the wooden plates and the chewing from them, the supper has been relatively quiet. Bonn is lying on the small makeshift bed, curled and quietly sleeping. However, that moment of deserved silence is about to be broken soon.</p>
<p>The thieves soon hear knocking from the door. And then, a guard's shouting voice comes in. "Open it!"</p>
<p>Foolishly, Alister gets up, comes to the door and opens it, showing three guards standing next to the sheriff, who proceed to invade the house and knock both him and his friend out. He tries to put an end to this, by smacking the first guard's face with a palm, but gets hit with a back of a rifle from another, then gets another hit from the sheriff, this time from his leg, knocking him out. Lara gets up and goes for a fight, by trying to defeat the latter. Though the first two attacks, being the simple upward kicks, fail, due to the fast dodging he employs, she tries for the downward spinning attack, but he just jumps, just as she is able to master it. This makes her angry, growling and clenching her fists. Soon, she dashes forward for one last attack that will surely put an end to this all, but then, he raises his leg, so that the knee is in the slightly different distance from the head and extends it forward.</p>
<p>The kick is so strong, that it has essentially blacked out Lara, who has fallen to the floor, next to Alister. He puts the leg back to the floor, and simply tells the guards, "Pick them up."</p>
<p>The guards follow the command given by the leader, as they place the unconscious bodies of the thieves to the shoulder and walk off, along with the sheriff. Behind them, following them leaving the cabin, Bonn comes along to them, making 'baa' noises, like he wants the new owner to wake up from the knocked-out state and beat those who has done this.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> <strong>Next time, on 'The Grand Hunt':</strong> </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> <strong>The thieves, who have been captured by Raphael and his goons, are taken to the stadium, where they'll participate in a major event, hosted by the latter's father, held every two years in another village, five meters off Netralek Port. What's the event in question? Who are the foes they might face against? Will they survive it, or end up being shredded, until nothing's left of them?</strong> </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> <strong>Don't miss out the next chapter of Across the Sea of War, Book One: "A Fight on the Coliseum"!</strong> </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And so, the guards' incompetence (and by extent, thieves' "high hopes") strikes back.</p>
<p>Before I close off the note, I wanna talk about one thing: what have I based the closing lines that appeared on the previous one, this chapter, and will be in the following ones onward? Well, I'll say I based them on Dragon Ball Z, while the opening narration bits (done by Jeffrey Lang, introduced in Chapter One and will essentially act as recaps to previous chapters) begin on the next chapter and will probably be based on 'The Legend of Korra'.</p>
<p>That's all I can say. And thanks for the hits, folks, I really appreciate them. Don't forget kudos if you enjoy the story so far!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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